Copyright Lifehacker
If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Tuesday, November 4, 2025, read on—I’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories. Along the way, I’ll explain the meanings of the trickier words and we’ll learn how everything fits together. Beware, there are spoilers below for November 4, NYT Connections #877! Read on if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Connections game. If you want an easy way to come back to our Connections hints every day, bookmark this page. (If you play Wordle, Strands, or Quordle, check out our hints for those games, too.) Below, I’ll give you some oblique hints at today’s Connections answers. And farther down the page, I’ll reveal the themes and the answers. Scroll slowly and take just the hints you need! The category types in today’s Connections puzzle Here are spoiler-free hints that describe the type of each category in today’s Connections: Yellow category - Synonyms. Green category - Synonyms. Blue category - Related nouns. Purple category - Fill in the blank. Hints for the themes in today’s Connections puzzle Here are some spoiler-free hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Yellow category - What a good leader does. Green category - What a light dusting of snow might create. Blue category - They indicate whether it’s an image, a song, a video, or text. Purple category - They go with an instrument word. BEWARE: Spoilers follow for today’s Connections puzzle! We’re about to give away some of the answers. Scroll slowly if you don’t want the whole thing spoiled. (The full solution is a bit further down.) A heads up about the tricky parts FILM doesn’t refer to a movie; it’s a bit of icky stuff that might form on the top of stagnant water, for example. MID is a type of audio file. If you add a word to the end of AIR, you’ll get a type of mock performance you might see at karaoke. What are the categories in today’s Connections? Yellow: STEER Green: THIN LAYER Blue: FILE EXTENSIONS Purple: ___ GUITAR DOUBLE BEWARE: THE SOLUTION IS BELOW Ready to learn the answers to today’s Connections puzzle? I give them all away below. What are the yellow words in today’s Connections? The yellow grouping is considered to be the most straightforward. The theme for today’s yellow group is STEER and the words are: DIRECT, DRIVE, GUIDE, PILOT. What are the green words in today’s Connections? The green grouping is supposed to be the second-easiest. The theme for today’s green category is THIN LAYER and the words are: COAT, FILM, LEAF, SHEET. What are the blue words in today’s Connections? The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for today’s blue category is FILE EXTENSIONS and the words are: DOC, MID, TIFF, ZIP. What are the purple words in today’s Connections? The purple grouping is considered to be the hardest. The theme for today’s purple category is ___ GUITAR and the words are: AIR, ELECTRIC, RHYTHM, SLIDE. How I solved today’s Connections TIFF could refer to the film festival or it could be a word for an argument or clash. Oh, maybe it’s a file type (as in “flowers.tiff,” which would be an image file), which could go with ZIP, SHEET, and DOC. Nope, “one away.” I think SHEET is the one that doesn’t fit. It might be MID instead, for a MIDI file. There it is. 🟦 SHEET and LEAF could be related to paper. SLIDE and FILM could be related to film or image display technology. COAT, SHEET, and FILM could refer to a layer of something on an exterior. PILOT, DRIVE, DIRECT, and GUIDE are all synonyms for leading something. 🟨 I’ll try SHEET, LEAF, FILM, and SLIDE. “One away.” I’ll swap out SLIDE for COAT. 🟩 I’ve never heard LEAF used that way. That leaves AIR, ELECTRIC, RHYTHM, and SLIDE. This feels like a fill in the blank. Oh, they go with “guitar.” AIR guitar, ELECTRIC guitar, RHYTHM guitar, and SLIDE guitar. 🟪 Connections Puzzle #877 🟦🟩🟦🟦 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟪🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟪 How to play Connections I have a full guide to playing Connections, but here’s a refresher on the rules: First, find the Connections game either on the New York Times website or in their Games app (formerly the Crossword app). You’ll see a game board with 16 tiles, each with one word or phrase. Your job is to select a group of four tiles that have something in common. Often they are all the same type of thing (for example: RAIN, SLEET, HAIL, and SNOW are all types of wet weather) but sometimes there is wordplay involved (for example, BUCKET, GUEST, TOP TEN, and WISH are all types of lists: bucket list, guest list, and so on). Select four items and hit the Submit button. If you guessed correctly, the category and color will be revealed. (Yellow is easiest, followed by green, then blue, then purple.) If your guess was incorrect, you’ll get a chance to try again. You win when you’ve correctly identified all four groups. But if you make four mistakes before you finish, the game ends and the answers are revealed. How to win Connections The most important thing to know to win Connections is that the groupings are designed to be tricky. Expect to see overlapping groups. For example, one puzzle seemed to include six breakfast foods: BACON, EGG, PANCAKE, OMELET, WAFFLE, and CEREAL. But BACON turned out to be part of a group of painters along with CLOSE, MUNCH, and WHISTLER, and EGG was in a group of things that come by the dozen (along with JUROR, ROSE, and MONTH). So don’t hit “submit” until you’ve confirmed that your group of four contains only those four things. If you’re stuck, another strategy is to look at the words that seem to have no connection to the others. If all that comes to mind when you see WHISTLER is the painting nicknamed “Whistler’s Mother,” you might be on to something. When I solved that one, I ended up googling whether there was a painter named Close, because Close didn’t fit any of the obvious themes, either. Another way to win when you’re stuck is, obviously, to read a few helpful hints–which is why we share these pointers every day. Check back tomorrow for the next puzzle!
